


Between two worlds

by Tinnevelly



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-24
Updated: 2014-04-24
Packaged: 2018-01-20 16:04:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1516643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinnevelly/pseuds/Tinnevelly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a power failure the Humans behind SPG find themselves in another world and they begin to understand that it isn't always funny to land in your own fantasy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This one will be difficult with the disclaimer.
> 
> Disclaimer: The robots and the SPG-universe belongs to the humans, the humans belong to their parents and/or themselves. Robert and Muffin belong to me. ô_o I think that's all. Yadda, no money, yadda!

The trees were moving gently in the wind as Steve exhaled and stretched. Bones cracked unreal loud as the massive dragon cast himself on the side and stretched the paws skyward.  
"Hey, you are blocking the sun!" Michael complained from the terrace. A paw grabbed him gently and lifted him into the air. He was then carefully placed on the amazingly soft belly of the dragon.  
"But don’t expect me to scratch your belly!" Michael had to hold to a scale to avoid being thrown down by the laughter of the dragon.  
"Don’t worry, Mike. I’m always happy to get my belly petted but not from guys." Steve had to whisper not to let Michael's ears ring.  
"Is there still room for us?" Rabbit’s voice sounded more excited than usual as she fidgeted next to Steve and finally pulled gently on one of his sclaes when he did not immediately respond to it.  
"We?" Intelligent eyes scrutinized the robot lady and a paw was laid beside her. Hatchworth stepped out of Steve's shadow and climbed together with his sister onto it. Steve raised the two and let them also rise on his stomach. Apparently even not too soon for already he heard someone enter the garden.  
"Rabbit, Hatchworth, I know that you're here."  
Michael burst into hearty laughter and Steve bared his fangs in a huge grin. The Spine gave the two a scowl.  
"I can’t really laugh about it."  
"Spine, buddy! I must say that pink is a really good color for you!" Michael crawled carefully to the edge of the dragon belly and looked more closely at the pink suit of The Spine.   
"Says the man who thinks that short shorts are appropriate clothing."  
"Uhh, Mike, that was evil." Steve snorted with laughter before he turned his head to the robot.  
"Hatchy and Rabbit are back there." He pointed to a distant corner of the garden.  
"Nice try but I can locate them. And they are on your belly."  
Steve grimaced. "You’re tricking at hide and seek? This is unfair."  
Rabbit crawled next to Michael on all fours and looked down at her brother.  
"Exactly! Totally unfair! In addition, you wanted a change." She groused laughing.  
"Rabbit, get down there."  
"Nope." She settled down flat next to Michael and grinned at the human. "You should tell him that it was you." She suggested to him softly. Michael shook his head and laughed.  
"If you don’t come down, I'm coming up!" Threatened The Spine.  
"You can’t!" Rabbit replied defiantly.  
Her brother moved slowly towards the big dragon but Steve did not move. Only when the metal man reached for him, he grabbed his guests, held them gently with his paw and turned over on his stomach. Then he stretched out his leathery wings and flapped them.  
"If you're nice, you can come."  
The Spine pondered the options then nodded. A little cool air would cool his boiler down. After all, it wasn’t his only suit.  
"Let's take the reins?" Steve nodded.  
The leather was still cool as the robots picked it up from the warehouse. Steve waited patiently until they had it on him and then invited his passengers on the back. Michael slipped up behind the skull and grabbed the leather welts that were individually almost thicker than he was tall.   
"Bring milk!" Peter Walter VI had been watching the whole scene from his study. He stretched his hand with a dollar bill out the window and let it take Michael out of hand. "And a current newspaper. Muffin has eaten our one this morning."  
Michael nodded and continued to put his flight goggles on. He hated Muffin. Marshmallow was indeed huge, but still cuddly. Muffin was only half as large as her father and a real beast. She loved to shed her hair everywhere and shooing Michael like a mouse through the halls until he found refuge in his workshop.  
"All ready?" Slowly Steve drew himself up to his full height and fluttered on a trial basis with the wings. He pressed his claws into the hard ground and ran. The wind reached under his wings and pulled him into the air.  
People in San Diego watched the sky and some children waved up to the dragon. They laughed as he waved back.  
Rabbit put her metal ears into the wind and clearly enjoyed the flight while Hatchworth clung to his brother, hoping not to fall.  
Michael drew Steve over the harbor to the open sea. There he left him in control.  
"Hold on!" The dragon rose steeply into the sky and let himself fall back playfully before he caught his fall and floated through the clouds.  
At first it had been hard to perform such tricks with the weight of three robots on his back but Steve had quickly accustomed to the load as they began to abuse him as a carrier.  
Something caught his attention. An object in the water let him go deeper. A shark plowed on through the sea to the coast. A little closer to the beach Steve saw a man who had dared pretty far into the sea. The Spine had also recognized the danger and yelled something to Michael over the noise. He grabbed the reins but Steve was faster. He pulled the wings close to his body and flew over the water. In the time he put out his paw which almost had him falling over. The paw was decelerated so strongly that it slowed the whole dragon. But Steve felt a familiar weight on his butt. The robots had slid rearwardly to stabilize him. With a loud roar he pulled the shark out of the water and at the same time drove a high wave in the direction of the human who was driven towards the coast with it.  
The shark was somewhat unceremoniously thrown back into the water a few kilometers in the open sea.  
"We should still get milk. And I think I need a drink now." While Michael regularly flew to the dragon but Steve avoided such actions, if there was someone other than the robots on his back. After all, he would have almost dropped Michael on a busy street when he playfully had nabbed a bird.


	2. Chapter 2

"What are you doing?" Bunny looked her brother over his shoulder and grimaced . "What's that stench?"  
David looked at her. "Gabi likes it."  
Bunny poked him in the arm and giggled. "Gabi likes other stuff, too, but I don’t want to see, smell or hear you like it."  
"Then take off? Then my baby and I have a rest and I can walk around naked all day!" Insanity in David's eyes made his sister laugh.  
"You can do this." She offered him and tugged at his shirt.  
"Leave it!" David squealed as Bunny began to tickle him. "I hate that!"  
"Should I serve the food later?" Sam watched them from the kitchen.  
"You've cooked?" Bunny jumped up and came into the kitchen. There she sniffed at the pots and pans.  
"Vegetable patties. Very healthy and really tasty." Sam explained the new creation patiently. He pointed to the recipe that he had sought from the internet when the doorbell rang.  
"I'll take it!" David rushed down the hall to the door and yanked it open.  
"I am delighted to see you too." Steve had taken a step backwards as the door was thrown open before him. "I've got Beef Jerky with me." Grinning, he lifted the bag with David's favorite variety.   
"Well, you may come in, peasant." Master of the house made room for his guest who joined immediately the other two in the kitchen.  
"Dude, what stinks in here?" He said with a disgusted facial expression and critically eyeing Sam's cooking skills.  
"David . He has a new aftershave." Bunny rolled her eyes. "Gabi likes it." She mimicked her brother.  
"Gabi just loves it." Defended David. "But okay, I’ll wash it off!" He folded his arms and disappeared into the bathroom to shower.  
Sam chuckled to himself and refined the food one last time. "I didn’t know that Gabi likes the smell of dead cats."  
Bunny began to snort and Steve spat his water back into the glass.  
"Dude, that's nasty!"  
"Nasty is just the smell. Otherwise, David is really a nice guy. Even housebroken!" Bunny leaned against the fridge and wiped tears from her eyes.  
"Does he get along with pets?" Steve wanted to know when he saw a plastic bottle flying past him.  
"I can hear you, you goof!" Grumbled David but now he also had to laugh.  
"Wow, that 's the stuff ? Can I have that? Does it help against pushy women?"  
Bunny looked at Steve with a critical eye. "Nah, you don’t need it." She ruled rock hard. Sam laughed and reached for the bottle.  
"Cover the table and I’ll dispose of the hazardous substance." He offered and threw the bottle in the trash.   
"Nope, you don’t need to start like this, Sam! You bring the stuff out." ordered Bunny and grabbed a few dishes. Steve helped her to prepare the common dining table, which was actually just the normal living room table.  
"So, what’s the plan?" He asked her. She placed the plates on the table and shrugged.  
"David still wanted to film and talk about the usual because of the upcoming performances and so on. But after this I think so."  
"We will eat first at any rate. I’ll just heat up the sauce in the microwave." Sam mingled from the kitchen and rummaged in the fridge.  
"And I'm ready!”  
Steve turned away, shaking his head when David went to his room. This didn’t escape him. "Let me guess: My underpants?"  
His friend nodded and tried to suppress a grin. "Let me guess: Gabi likes them?"  
David stuck out his tongue. "No, I got them from the good-hearted Bunny."  
Bunny grimaced. "It was a joke." She defended the purchase of the ugliest pants in the world.  
Steve stretched and registered a strange glow from the kitchen from the corner of his eye. But before he could say something or react, the power went out and they were all sitting in the dark.  
"Oh damn, not again those stupid cables!" David's voice came closer when there was a thud and he cried out in pain.  
Bunny felt carefully around her and found her cell phone. She lit their environment with the brightness of the screen. Steve sat across from her and had armed himself with a dull knife instinctively. Sam stood a little away from her, still a spoon in one hand. And David sat behind Steve on the floor and held his foot.  
"Everything okay with everyone?" Sam asked cautiously as he saw the light.  
"Yes, I have hit my damned little toe!" David hissed through clenched teeth .  
"Where’s the fuse box? I can take a look at it." Steve had now pulled out his own cell phone which he could use as a flashlight.  
"In the basement." Bunny stood up and wanted to go with Steve when she noticed something. She looked around.  
"This isn’t our home." She said in amazement.


	3. Chapter 3

Slowly the animal strolled side by side with a man through the tall rows of shelves.  
"I 'll have to do something about it. I am barely able to work." Complained a voice.  
"After all, you can still talk." Retorted another voice.  
David stayed crouched in the darkness. He and his friends had now left the dark chamber and had found themselves in a library.  
"What use does talking have to me when I need hands? How can I make an entry into the archive without being able to hold a pen?" Again, the first voice.  
"By you finally accepting the changes that I proposed to you! If we modify the computer ..." However, the proposal of the companion was harshly interrupted.  
"A computer! This alone is amazing! What is a library without books? Peter, you're a good boy. But at least your father did appreciate my work!"  
The man sighed. "Robert, I just want to help you."  
The animal stretched out its snout into the air. "Do you smell that? That's the smell of history. Decades of events. Your entire life is recorded here, Peter."  
Bunny had ventured next to David and then pulled a book from the shelf in front of her. She flipped through it and opened her eyes wide.  
"This is a chronicle! Behold times. Everything is written down to the day." She was amazed and handed the book on to her friends.  
"Have I allowed to touch anything here?" The hyena now stood in front of Bunny baring its teeth.  
"Robert! You shouldn’t scare our guests." A man stood behind the hyena and turned to his visitors. With horror Bunny recognized the mask. A key hole was carved in it and under it shone a faint blue.  
"Petes." Bunny let herself fall to the ground out of the squat when she saw her invention in the flesh before her.  
"For you it’s Mister Walter!" Growled the hyena.  
"Steve, I didn’t know that we have newbies. Nice of you to show them around." Peter VI leaned down to Bunny and shook her hand.  
"I 'm Peter A. Walter VI. Welcome to my humble home."  
"I 'm Bunny. This is my brother David and these are Sam Luke and Steve Negrete." She said and took his hand to stand up.  
"Well, Miss Bunny, I think I know Mr. Negrete already. Although I didn’t know that he actually had a last name."  
Steve laughed nervously. "You don’t?" That was creepy. How could it be that the figures of the band's history knew him and why were they here? What the hell had happened?  
"Just forget it. So these are the new Walter Workers? Nice to meet you."  
The newcomers looked at each other questioningly and decided to play along first. It would take time to explain everything anyway.  
"Where’s Carolina? She is responsible for the newbies. And you know that you are banned from here, dragon!" The hyena snapped at Steve's leg.  
"Dragon!? Dude, you're crazy? What's going on here at all?" Steve was the only one who seemed to be clearly aware of the problem.  
"Steve, it's okay. They will still see you in the garden anyway." Peter seemed to smile . "He is a dragon. But you must not be afraid of him. And besides, he isn’t the only miracle here. You will see very different things. As our Robert here. He is the archivist of my family."  
The hyena growled briefly but then nodded to the guests.  
Bunny pinched Steve in the arm when he tried to say something. "Show us the rest of the house, Steve?" She asked, leaving no room for arguments.

They had left the archive and retired to a secluded hallway.  
"What the heck? Where are we?"  
David nodded in agreement but did not let himself get infected by Steve’s panic. Curious, he looked at the pictures on the walls.  
"If I'm right, we are in the Walter family house. We have just met Peter Walter VI." He concluded.  
"And a talking hyena that has snapped at me." Steve went on.  
"What if we are here, too? Matter Mistress Bunny and so?" Bunny mused.  
"He didn’t recognize you." Steve looked for help to Sam, suddenly very interested in his shoes.  
"We just go back in there and tell Peter everything. He will understand it and bring us home."  
Steve shook his head at David's testimony. Furious, he summed up his fear in a question: "And what if we can’t go home?"  
Three pairs of eyes were staring at him. Within a few seconds, the adventure had become a nightmare.  
"We talk to him. Surely there is a solution. We came here somehow." Bunny tried to look at the whole factual.  
"There you are!! Steve, what are you doing to my people again?" The woman was dressed in the uniform of a Walter Girl and had built up in front of the four.  
Steve tried to remember all his emergency plans for an apocalypse of any kind that he had ever forged. The people here really thought of him for Steve out of this house. He was respected, though not of all.  
"I need their help." He said and hoped for the best . The Walter Girl in front of him shrugged her shoulders.  
"I don’t know why, but I expect them back for shift change." She went away, leaving confusion.  
"To summarize: We are here in our imagination. Steve is well known here. We aren’t." Sam was fascinated by the whole situation.  
"What do we do now?" Bunny asked softly.  
David looked around and just went off in one direction. "Let's look around!"  
The others followed him and were amazed when they were aware of the dimensions of the house.  
"I thought it would be huge but look how extra huge everything is!"  
Suddenly Bunny pulled the others behind a corner and pointed at the corridor before them. The Spine walked around there and then sighed, steam coming out of his mouth. David was astonished when he saw his role as an independent being. "He looks so different."  
"Can I help you?" Green eyes stared at the corner behind which people had hid.  
Bunny realized the curiosity in her brother's eyes too late and could do nothing more as he went out and walked toward the robot.  
"Wow. This design I always had in mind but could never implement!" He circled the large metal man and looked at it quite closely.  
"Excuse me?" The Spine watched the human and finally put out a hand to him. "My name is The Spine." He introduced himself politely.  
David took the hand and shook it with joy. "I 'm David! And I am you! Somehow. Oh man, that’s so cool!"  
Bunny struck with the flat of her hand against her forehead and stood up. Slowly she followed her brother out of the hiding place, pulling Sam and Steve with her.  
"Ah , Steve. You show the new staff their jobs?" The Spine ignored David's outburst and turned to the single familiar face. For a small moment the robot seemed confused and this made the person addressed almost panic more. A human he could still lie to, but a machine?  
"The Spine, who are your friends?" Hatchworth came slowly to them, riding on Marshmallow and then jumped off. Although the floor creaked, it didn’t give in as the weight came down. Apparently the wood was applied to metal.  
"That's me!" Now it was Sam’s turn to watch the robot and investigate. Tentatively, he took off his hat and even put it on.  
"How rude." Remarked Hatchworth and took his hat back. The Spine nodded. These new staff were really different from the others.  
"We just wanted to go on!" Even before anyone could object, Steve grabbed his friends and pulled them away from the two robots and the huge cat.


	4. Chapter 4

Bunny groaned and grumbled. Her back was hurting and she had seen neither David nor Sam today. She leaned against a window sill and looked out into the garden. Peter had been right. A speaking hyena had been only the beginning. Since her arrival yesterday she had now already seen Marshmallow and his daughter Muffin. And this morning she had seen a giant dragon circle around over the house. Slowly, she wondered if it was really good to land in your own imagination.  
"Here you are!" David crept into the room and closed the door. "I want to get out of here." He admitted sheepishly. His sister took him in her arms and nodded. "Me too. We should talk to Peter."  
"Shouldn’t you work?" Rabbit had entered the room and took a dress from a hanger. "That has yet to be ironed." The robot handed the dress to Bunny. She was confused. Sure, it was awesome to really see the lovely Rabbit. But the manners of the robot were quite different.  
"What are you staring at me like that, stupid thing?" That was enough. Bunny opened the window and threw the dress out.  
"Listen, scrap metal. You're just a part of my imagination. I have created you and you were much friendlier then!" she grumbled to her metallic likeness.  
Rabbit tilted her head slightly askew and looked at Bunny for a moment. "Until this afternoon, the dress is cleaned and ironed or I 'll throw you out the window. Got it?"  
David withdrew his sister and pressed his hand on her mouth. "She has understood." He answered for Bunny.  
When Rabbit had left the room, Bunny bit into his hand. "What was that? Have you seen how Rabbit talked with me?!” She was beside herself with rage.  
"She don’t know who we are. No one knows this." David tried to calm her.  
"Nevertheless Rabbit has never talked with a human like this!"  
That left David in silence and he nodded sadly. Something was wrong with the whole thing. Since he had taken up his duties as a Walter Boy this morning the inhabitants of the house had treated him coldly. He had seen The Spine for a second yelling at the staff for a dirty spot.  
"We need to talk to Peter. Have you seen Steve or Sam?"  
A light knock on the door revealed another visitor.  
"Am I interrupting something?" The Spine stood in the open door. Something was different about him.  
"I must apologize to you, David. I wasn’t very friendly this morning." He lowered his eyes even as it really bothered him so David had no choice but to feel sorry for him.  
"That's okay. But you are so different than we thought." He carefully tried to calm the robot. “Under these circumstances, it isn’t easy to smile."  
Bunny remembered fleetingly an idea that she had had a few days ago. She went pale. "Annie died." She breathed and cursed herself as if she was the one to blame.  
The Spine nodded. "The funeral is this afternoon and nobody feels really happy."  
David couldn’t be angry anymore and hugged the big robot which itself still towered over him by a head. Surprised The Spine replied embrace carefully but pushed him back away from him as oil ran down the metal cheeks.  
"I should go." And he left the room, leaving Bunny and David themselves.  
"We can’t go to Peter after his mother is buried today. That would be mean." Bad conscience bothered the two twins.

Brown eyes met identical brown eyes as Steve stood up.  
"Wow." His opponent stared at him curiously.  
For more he was not capable of "Wow.".  
Carefully his opponent and he stretched a finger at the same time and pulled him back in astonishment again.  
"Hi." Silence. "Hey." After all, the first contact was when a hand found another hand and the two men were aware that this wasn’t a strange dream they were experiencing.  
"Steve?"  
"Yes, Steve?"  
"You are me."  
"And you are me."  
"Wow."  
"Am I interrupting your fraternity or something? Steve, we have a problem!" Michael came into the shop and had seen the whole spectacle.  
"Mike, this is Steve. That's what I am."  
The technician sighed. "Great. Will you help me now?"  
Steve, both, looked at Michael reproachfully who now looked confused back at the two.  
"What?"  
"I have a clone and you say nothing about it?"  
"Hey, I 'm not your clone!"  
Slowly, Michael backed out of the workshop. He hadn’t really noticed if the other was real or just a clever mirror image.  
"Mike, stay here." Steve turned to his twin. "And now you’ll tell me everything."  
The other Steve shrugged. "Dude, I have no idea. The fuse was blown and everything went black and then we were here and looked around."  
Michael came closer. "We?"  
"Me and three friends."  
Steve grabbed him and lifted him into the air. "And what are you doing here?" He asked irritably.  
"Take it easy! We have no idea what's going on!"  
Michael put a hand on Steve's arm and motioned for him to put his counterpart down.  
"So you came here because of a power failure? Where did you come from?"  
"San Diego."


	5. Chapter 5

Peter had just managed to tie his black tie when Michael walked into his study. And now were four confused people in front of him, together with their counterparts.  
"That's all. We play the robots and thought it all was fantasy." Bunny was close to tears and clung to her brother's hand.  
"Of course, trans-dimensional gates. But I must tell you that I have no idea how you can get back to your world." Peter had heard everything what the people had to tell. He had asked them questions which could have only be answered by the persons concerned and they had answered them all perfect.  
"Does that mean that they are stranded here?" Rabbit was still angry but she had compassion on the people. She knew what it meant to be alone.  
"I 'm afraid so. For the time being." Peter stood up. " I'm sorry, we have to go."

Sam had moved into the archive with Bunny to find a clue how they could return to their world. David now continued his tour through the house with Steve.  
"I just don’t know what to do." He admitted as they stepped out into the garden.  
"Hey, what can I say? In this world I am a dragon. Huge and cool! At home I 'm just cool. That's so boring." Steve's humor served its purpose and made David smile.  
"We'll find a way back." He put an arm around David's shoulders and hugged him briefly.  
"And what if not? I'll never see Gabi again!" David freed himself from Steve's arm and sat down in the grass.  
"Hey, I have Lil ' Steve waiting back at home, okay?" Steve sat next to his friend and nudged him gently in the shoulder.

"I think I've got something!" Bunny called across the room. Robert the archivist and Sam were immediately at her side and stared at the book.  
"Here are notes from Peter II regarding the cracks in time and space."  
"He’s always scribbling something. But I'm afraid there were only theories and no evidence." Robert slowed her down gently.  
"But he maybe has researched it. Didn’t he note anything?" Sam asked.  
"Well, the files of the Walters are supported here. But I fear that it would take years to look through them. Even if I still had my hands and could help."  
"Would you have accepted the offer by a computer." Bunny grumbled at him. She had never seen such a pissed off hyena.  
"What would you know about my work?" Robert complained .  
"She's right, you know?" Peter had crept into the archive.

The earth shook as the dragon trotted to the two men. He threw himself to the ground and moved very close to David with his nose and exhaled slowly. The warm air left the hair of man blowing in the wind. Steve's human counterpart stretched out his hand and patted the great dragon snout. David didn’t respond.  
A paw clasped the two people and moved them to the back of the dragon. The trees in the area were bent when the dragon flapped its wings and took off. Aimless he chased through the sky, eager to distract the two humans from their fate.

"I could work with the theory but the rest of the bill is missing." Peter picked up a piece of singed paper. Robert snorted.  
"That's why he isn’t allowed in here any more!"  
Bunny and Sam looked at each other questioningly.  
"Steve. He had hiccups and burned some books." Robert answered their unasked question with a sullen look.  
"How did you become a hyena, Bob?" Bunny asked with a smile. She liked to scratch behind the furry ears of the archivist what he acknowledged with a peculiar cooing.  
"He was involved in the same accident as I was. His essence was however transferred into a hyena that was with us." Bunny vaguely remembered one of her dreams, in which the robots had bought a zoo.  
"Here's something else!" Sam pushed the book across the table and waited for Peter's opinion.  
"This looks good. Here is something about a regular anomaly." He snorted at the word choice of his predecessors. "It connects this house to a parallel universe that is very similar to ours."  
Bunny read the text and then shook her head. "That's not ours. We don’t have a purple sky or talking fish."  
Sam hung his head. "Unfortunately." He would have been happy if he had lived in such a world.  
"What about this? Blue sky, breathable air, humans, development of technology normal. And here's a photo!" Robert took it gently in his mouth and handed it to Bunny and Sam.  
"That's Grandpa!" She was amazed to see a photo of the man in another universe. Peter reached out and was stunned when he realized his grandfather, too.

The dragon went on a final round over the house before he began to land. During the flight, it had been quiet at first but after a few tricks and great views Steve had heard the two people on his back cheer.  
They were already expected.  
"David ! Grandpa was Mark Ray Walter!" Bunny was outside and ran to her brother before she slowed and became aware that before her actually stood a giant dragon. And that this beast was laughing at her.

In the archive the new information was passed on to the two Steves, Michael, the robots and David.  
"So Mark never died?" Rabbit looked at the photo confused.  
"No, probably he was thrown through a similar crack in our world." Sam said with a grin. He thought that all this time history was still pretty cool.  
"That's why we have never found a body." The Spine nodded slowly as everything made sense.  
"And how do we get back home?" Steve was still skeptical. Certainly he was pleased with the discoveries that Bunny and David had a whole other family, but he still wanted to go home.  
"The crack and the calculations were discovered by my father. Give me time and I can copy it."


	6. Chapter 6

In the end it went faster than anyone could have expected and now the people gathered in front of a blue glowing tear in the time-space continuum.  
"This is planned to bring you to the basement of the house you came from." Peter said with visible pride.  
"Can we just leave him there?" David was amazed how easy it had been.  
"I think so. It’s stable and we don’t need this room anyway."  
Dragon Steve grinned. "Then you can visit me! I want to meet this Lil ' Steve!" His human counterpart laughed and nodded.  
The Spine handed David a hat. "That was one of my first. I thought you could wear it if you want." The eyes of the human widened.  
"Sure!" And already the hat was placed on his head.  
"I too have something for my human" Hatchworth brought forth and gave Sam a plate with a variety of sandwiches.  
"After all, if you’re me then you like sandwiches and so much." he said sheepishly. Sam hugged the robot and thanked him warmly.  
Rabbit looked at Bunny. "You get nothing. You threw my dress out the window."  
Bunny had to smile in spite of the harsh words . "And I would do it again at any time!" 

When David went to the basement a few days later to fetch a new box that had come through the tear, he saw Bunny and Rabbit in their finest dresses celebrating a tea party. He realized that Bunny was wearing a strange dress and Rabbit wearing one of Bunny's dresses. Silently, he reached for the wanted box and sneaked out of the basement.  
Inside the apartment, he opened the box and looked inside. As always some sandwiches were on top from Hatchworth to Sam. This time, The Spine had settled in gratitude for David's iPod an old-fashioned record with early songs by Steam Powered Giraffe.  
"Hey, is something for me in there?" David had arranged to meet with Steve to work together to unpack the box. He rummaged through the contents and finally found pages with wonderful drawings of dragons and a note that it Lil ' Steve was well on his holiday at the Walter estate. Steve took everything out and looked into the box. There was a small book, bound in leather. David took it out and flipped through the pages. He laughed and showed it to Steve. Pictures of the robots and the humans mixed with landscape pictures and short stories about their adventures. Up front they found the paw print of a hyena with the little note that they were welcome to visit the archives anytime - it was written with a computer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it!   
> As always: Thank you for reading it and I hope it made you smile.
> 
> If you want to make me happy, drop a kudo or a comment or a note to my inbox! ^____^


End file.
